I’m hoping Matt will step in here and explain some things about Dwarves and their dwellings. Me, when I try and play the game, I just see the Matrix. Now if the game looked like this… well, there would be no stopping me. I’d be playing the game non-stop.

The art for today’s comic may seem weird. That’s because usual game-based comics, I match the comic art to the game’s art style to some degree. With today’s the game is all ascii based. To try and show that I made everyone monotone, bright, and on a almost black background. Successful? You tell me. You might almost notice the character’s foreheads.

I also want to talk about another couple indy games. The first is Noitu Love 2. It’s out and you should play it. Buy at your own leasure, but at least try the demo. It’s a fun fast paced pixel game, and I love me my pixel art. The game itself seems to be riddled with bugs, as I’ve fallen through/behind the world on almost twelve occasions. Considering how short the game is, that’s pretty silly. Regardless, it’s cool beans.

Third game I’ll just mention in short. Yume Nikki. Sorry I don’t have a direct link to the English version of the game for you. All I have to say about it is this:

Dwarf Fortress models an awful lot in its little miniature world, but pet overpopulation isn’t one of them. Tame animals don’t need to eat, but will endlessly reproduce. Cats spawn in large litters and are also readily adopted by the dwarves, who will then throw a fit if you kill off Mr. Snugglepuss. The resulting catsplosion brings the CPU to a crawl as it tries to handle the pathfinding for hundreds of mewling ambient units.

Even with two butcher shops going full-tilt, I can barely put a dent in the stray population. However, each butchery triggers one of my tanners to go to work. One top of that, I’ve had to build new shops and train new bonecrafters, chefs and leatherworkers just to keep my storehouses of raw materials from overflowing. It’s reached the point where my entire dwarven economy is based around the slaughter of helpless kittens, which is a rather spectacular way for a civilization to decline.

Of course, some people get a little more creative with their livestock disposal.